Highland living, fame, free kits and Regency lady

Before I dive into details of my latest stitchy escapades, a warm welcome to anyone who`s seen this in WOXS 317 and thought of checking out my blog. 😊

You might need to dig deep for the aforementioned `handy tips`, but there are more pics of my recently reorganised threads in this post, and examples of my route planning - as evidenced in my progress photos, which I sometimes string together in mini videos - are abundant (as is my waffling, whenever I have the time to go on, and on... and on).

Case in point: now. Not only have I finished my 5th pre-Christmas commission (you know, those tasks trickling in at the beginning of Dec, when mid-Jan and end of Jan deadlines seem so, so far away, and the next thing you know, it`s Jingle Bells... Should old acquaintance... Oh, it`s 20 January!! 😨). Anyway, so not only have I finished those 5 projects but I finally managed to get back to my Mary Hickmott pic too - the second one after finishing this Rialto Bridge for myself. Only this morning, I added the last few clouds:

It`s called Highland living, available from Mary Hickmott`s Etsy shop, and even though the key calls for 16ct ice blue aida, I stitched it on 14ct so that it`ll fit nicely in this gap above the Monarch of the Glen (it`s about 60 x 10 cm on 14ct), whenever I get round to framing it.

Because of the mad rush of the past few weeks, I completely forgot to post here about the previous issue`s cover kit: the free gift with WOXS 316 was this cute little Emma Congdon design:

The magazine`s finishing team turned it into a banner, and this month`s free gift, Lucie Heaton`s leafy plants in macramé hangers can be used either as a card or as a bookmark.

Finally, here`s Heather Nugent`s Regency lady, also from issue 317 - I loved working on this! Not only because I`m a Jane Austen fan, but also because I love stitching big blocks of colour, and this project had not only those but a little bit of everything as well, from intricate backstitch detail to beads and petit point. It took just over 50 hours, and instead of unrolling the fabric for every progress pic, I took a photo of my Pattern Keeper screen at the end of each day. I put them in a mini film, together with my finished stitching and the framed picture as it appears in the magazine. Hope you like them, thanks for scrolling through and happy stitching! 😊

kimonos, harbours and museums

The new issues of both Cross Stitch Crazy (268) and The World of Cross Stitching (294) are out now so I can share some pics of my pieces in these, yay! 😊

First up, the free gift with Crazy this month is this lovely Chinese girl bookmark, designed by Durene Jones:

I enjoyed working on this cover kit: I love the shading of the skirt and her hair, and it was fun to see all those floral motifs come to life as I was adding the backstitch. It took 7,5 hours to stitch, and I think it looks gorgeous framed by the cherry blossoms of the card.

In the new WOXS that`s out today, there`s this stunning picture by Emma Louise Art Stitch:

It is called St Ives Harbour, and it`s been one of the most unique projects I have stitched so far, its style is so different from anything else I`ve done but I love it - I hadn`t heard of this designer before but now I`ll be looking out for more of her work in future. For a medium sized image, it took quite a few hours (62 to be exact) to finish, and many of these were spent adding black backstitch lines around the stones in the wall and around each window pane, but it was so worth it for this final look. Plus, there was a bit of confetti in the foreground and half stitches in the sky, so all in all, plenty to keep the stitcher entertained (actually, I was surprised to see how long it took, those 60 hours felt more like 30).

Finally, here`s the latest update on my HAED Museum Shelf. I`ve been quite busy for the past few weeks so I only just got back to it yesterday. Consequently, there`s not much change since the last photo - I just added a bit more to the frame on the right. Here`s the first pic where I picked it up (that was taken at 10 hours) and I`m up to 22 hours just now. Hope you`re all doing OK, stay safe and happy stitching! 😊

Spring is here

There have been a few mags coming out recently and Spring is definitely in the air - not just IRL but as far as cross stitch charts are concerned.

In Cross Stitch Crazy 254, the cover kit is a pair of mice, designed by Helz Cuppleditch. I loved stitching both but my fave has to be the one in the hammock: 😄

Still on the subject of cover kits, I also stitched this month`s free gift with issue 280 of The World of Cross Stitching:

This birdcage bookmark is such an elegant design by Fiona Baker and a really easy stitch too, just a few quick backstitch lines between wee bits of cross stitch, so it`s an ideal last-minute gift, for example (it`s Mothers` Day on Sunday here in the UK. Just sayin` 😉).

Finally, issue 343 of Cross Stitcher has hit the UK shops today and in it Part 1 of 4 seasonal samplers by Faye Walsh is published, called Spring Is In The Air.

 It took 62 hours to stitch and I enjoyed it a lot - samplers made up of smaller pictures always build more quickly and I rarely have the chance to blend colours (as I had to here for the sea waves in the image in the centre), plus I liked the colours, the virtually no backstitch and the fabric too, it`s a beautiful lavender shade (in case you can`t tell from my photo 😂).

I took some close-ups of the individual scenes - my pics might not be exactly well lit but at least there are some details there that might not be spotted at first glance. Hope you like all these Spring-themed projects, happy stitching! 😊

flowery bookmark and Sleepy Guy

Things have piled up a bit lately, so I`m not sure what mags came out when, I just know what looks familiar and this Cheryl McKinnon bookmark from Crazy 252 is def mine - ooh, just spotted the felt flowers that were added to it, how lovely! 😊 I have my BEFORE pic and this month I got a copy of this beautiful pro photo too of the AFTER from the magazine:

Also, in my last post, when I showed you Peacock&Fig`s mermaids from issue 6 of XStitch Magazine, I forgot to add another model I stitched for this Mixtape issue - a collaboration of Lucie Heaton and her son, who created the original graffiti that Lucie then translated into cross stitch. It was great fun to stitch, I loved working on the bright yellow aida and every time I looked at Sleepy Guy, I pictured an overworked Elvis impersonator and had a huge smile on my face (plus, hello, blocky stitching - yes, please!). Happy stitching, folks!